


Living House

by Darkrose517



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Childhood, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Molestation, M/M, Other, Violence, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:03:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2564177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkrose517/pseuds/Darkrose517
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mandy's mother died and their house died with her.  It was cold and cruel and should have been buried a long time ago.  What happens when her and Mickey find a living house?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Living House

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little story about Mandy and Mickey when they were little growing up with Terry. I tried to get the ages as close as I could. I don't mention all of the Gallagher children, because at the time I set it in Carl and Liam shouldn't have been born yet.
> 
> I put it in the tags, but just to be sure: There are mentions of child abuse both physical and sexual. I don't describe much with Mandy's sexual abuse, because I made it so it hasn't quite happened yet.
> 
> Please comment with your opinions and tell me about any mistakes. :)
> 
> This is a one-shot.

Six year-old Mandy Milkovich stood up on her tippy toes and turned the handle on her front door. It was late, or early, it was hard for Mandy to tell, because someone was always sleeping in her house. It was like the house was filled with dead people. It was light outside, but the dim kind of light that made Mandy miss her mommy and her Saturday morning pancakes. She knew that her father was passed out on the couch so that was all she needed to slip out of the house unnoticed. 

Her bigger brothers were at a friend’s house, probably getting into trouble. Except for Mickey, who was in his room sleeping. She thought about going to wake him up so he could go with her, but she knew he needed to sleep. Daddy had hurt him again last night and he needed to get better so that he could be ok. 

He didn’t even move when she sneaked past his door, and for a minute she worried that he could be dead like mommy, but she saw his little chest move up and down and knew that he was going to be ok. She finished turning the knob and pulled the door open just enough to fit her tiny body through the opening. The sunlight would wake daddy if she wasn’t careful and he would hurt her for leaving. He never cared when she came back, he only got mad when he caught her leaving. 

She moved quickly down the steps outside of their house and didn’t slow down until she was on the sidewalk in front of their neighbor’s house. Their neighbor was a mean old lady who threw things at them when they stepped on her yard, so she made sure to keep her old blue sneakers on the cracked sidewalk. She walked silently for a while, listening to the hum of engines and the rattle of wire fences. She knew where the bad places were, so she felt pretty safe walking alone, even in their neighborhood. If she ran into anyone all she had to say was her name to keep them away from her. Her daddy was a scary man. 

She got to her destination in no time and sat down on the cold ground so that she could watch and listen to the house. It sounded like they were having a party. They were playing loud music and Mandy could hear banging and laughing. They were the bubbly, crazy-happy kind of laughs that she couldn’t hear at her house. The only laughter she ever heard there was cruel or slurred with chopped up words in it. 

She and Mickey had discovered the house a year ago when daddy had to come over to beat someone up. She thought it was the daddy of the house, but he looked a little old, like he didn’t take care of himself. Daddy made them wait at the door while he kicked the man on the ground. She saw a crying blonde woman and a few kids watching. They all looked different. There was an older, thin, dark haired girl at the center of the bunch. She was holding a crying baby in her arms and Mandy wondered if it was hers. She had seen plenty of girls her age come to her mommy for baby clothes over the years. Huddled on either side of her were two boys around her and Mickey’s ages. The taller one was kind of goofy looking with golden hair that stuck out everywhere and big eyes. He wasn’t crying, but he winced when her daddy would kick the man and he held onto the older girl tight. The other boy was goofy looking too but for different reasons. He had shaggy red hair and freckles all over his face. He was crying, big scared tears that almost made her start crying until Mickey nudged her and she remembered that Milkovich’s didn’t cry. They just didn’t. 

When they saw Mickey and Mandy the boys froze. The taller one let go of his sister and looked at them meanly. The red haired boy stopped crying and sniffled, looking at them with his big, wet, green eyes. His face was all red and she didn’t know if it was because he was crying or because he was embarrassed. Her mommy told her once that people go red sometimes when there are big butterflies in their stomachs trying to fly out. The red-headed boy must of had a lot of butterflies. 

Mandy looked at Mickey and thought that maybe the boy had given him some of his butterflies because Mickey’s face was red too and he was looking down at his feet. When they were walking home, with daddy cursing and mumbling up ahead, Mandy asked Mickey if he knew the boys. Mickey said that the blonde kid, Lip, was in his class at school and the red-headed boy, Ian, was on his little league team. Mandy could’ve sworn that she saw him go red again at Ian’s name, but she was probably wrong. 

Since that day, her and Mickey would sometimes sneak out of their house to go see the other one. They mostly went at night, when Mickey was sure daddy and their brothers were asleep or gone. They would sit on the ground and watch it. They didn’t talk. They were too busy listening to sounds of the house. It was almost always loud and Mandy liked to pretend that she lived there and that they was her real family. That she could just walk in and they would give her a nice, loud welcome home. But she didn’t. She knew that they weren’t her family. She already had a family and she was ok with that. 

She knew that Mickey loved her, even if he couldn’t say it and daddy wasn’t mean all the time. Sometimes, late at night, he would come into her room and lay next to her. He smelled sour, like the bottles in his room and he would mumble words and call her mommy’s name. She thinks he gets confused when he drinks from those bottles. 

Sometimes they would walk by the house on a weekend and the kids would be outside or looking through the windows. Mandy liked watching them play and have fun. She didn’t think they would want to play with her, so she never asked. Mickey pretended that he didn’t know that she wanted to and they would always just keep walking. In return she pretended that Mickey didn’t stare at the red haired boy. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t think it would be safe to tell anyone about that. It was their secret and that made her happy. 

She stayed there on the ground outside of the house until the laughing turned to crying and yelling. Then she picked herself up and walked home. The sun was all the way out now and she could see people coming out of their houses and looking at her, she just kept walking. When she got home her daddy was drinking in the living room. He just grunted at her when she came through the door. She went to her room to find an angry looking Mickey sitting on her bed. He yelled at her for leaving the house without him and she cried. He said a word that he heard from daddy and pulled her into one of their hugs. She liked hugging Mickey he was her height and as small as she was, even though he acted like he was bigger. He was always a little dirty, but he smelled kind of like the ground after it rained. They let go of each other and just sat on her bed for a while. He asked where she went and she said that she had gone to the Living house and he knew exactly where she meant.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I know it's depressing, but I got the idea and had to write it! :)


End file.
